Freedom of Expression
The Beijing-based monthly magazine People [Bai Xing], has toned down its outspoken style and removed the "Recording China in Change" slogan from its cover, according to a December 30 South China Morning Post (SCMP) article.
Zheng's brother said that authorities detained Zheng on December 3, 2004, and held him for ten days at the Liaohe Hotel in Yingkou city, according to a March 15, 2005, statement from the Independent Chinese PEN Center. A document that appears to be a transcription of the Yingkou Intermediate People's Court verdict (in Chinese) posted on the Epoch Times Web site shows that public security officials placed Zheng under residential surveillance on December 3, 2004, took him into criminal custody on December 20, and officially arrested him on December 31. The document also says that the Yingkou Municipal People's Procuratorate indicted Zheng on March 20, 2005, and the court tried him on April 26. The procuratorate submitted a request to extend the hearing on June 13, 2005, and a request to supplement evidence on July 6.
The New York Times reported on December 23 that Chinese authorities have indicted Zhao Yan, a researcher at its Beijing bureau, on charges of revealing state secrets and fraud. Agents from the Ministry of State Security detained Zhao on September 17, 2004, and authorities formally arrested him in October 2004 for "providing state secrets to foreigners." In June 2005, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) confirmed that on May 20 authorities had transferred his case to the Beijing procuratorate for prosecution both for providing state secrets to foreigners and for fraud.
The Chongqing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court sentenced Xu Wanping to 12 years imprisonment and 4 years deprivation of political rights for incitement to subvert state power on December 23, according to a December 24 Human Rights in China (HRIC) press release. Chinese authorities have not disclosed for what actions they prosecuted Xu. In addition, they have taken several measures to ensure the public does not learn about the facts relating to his case:
Police in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), interrupted a July prayer session at one of Lhasa's principle monasteries, "fired" the presiding monastic official, and subjected him to one year of surveillance (see Criminal Procedure Law, Chapter VI), according to a November 18 Radio Free Asia (RFA) report. Jangchub Gyaltsen, a "disciplinarian" at Sera Monastery who was responsible for ensuring that monks adhere to monastic rules, was reading aloud a prayer request that a Tibetan worshipper asked another Sera monk, Tsering Dondrub, to write. Public security officials heard Jangchub Gyaltsen read a reference to the Dalai Lama and seized the paper slip from him, according to an RFA source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
According to a Beijing News article, public security officials have tightened access to Tiananmen Square for the morning flag-raising ceremony. The Public Security Bureau evidently has ordered People’s Armed Police (PAP) officers to escort groups of ordinary citizens into the square to observe the flag ceremony from designated points.
Officials said that they intend the measures to ensure security and order in the square, to prevent problems caused by the sporadic groups of protesters and petitioners who seek to demonstrate there. Mass petitions and demonstrations of disaffected groups, such as migrant workers seeking to recover unpaid back wages, often punctuate the Chinese New Year period (the New Year falls on February 9 this year).
A prison official informed the family of imprisoned Shanghai lawyer and housing rights activist Zheng Enchong that he had broken an unspecified rule on December 10, and that they were barred from seeing or speaking to him, Amnesty International reported on December 20. Zheng is serving a three-year sentence for disclosing state secrets. Zheng's punishment came days after the German Judges Association announced (in German) that it had awarded Zheng its 2005 Human Rights Award.
The local procuratorate in Jingbian county, Shaanxi province, has indicted Feng Bingxian and three other oil investors for "gathering a crowd to disturb public order," a crime under Article 291 (amended in December 2001) of China's Criminal Law, according to an October 27 report by the Voice of America (VOA). Local officials released Feng Xiaoyuan, Kong Yuming, and Wang Shijun on bail, but have kept Feng Bingxian in detention. Feng's son formally retained Beijing lawyer Mo Shaoping to assist in the criminal defense.
New rules governing the publication of newspapers and magazines in China went into effect on December 1. The General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) issued the Provisions on the Administration of Newspapers and Provisions on the Administration of Periodicals on September 30 to replace the Interim Provisions on the Administration of Newspapers (Interim Provisions) and the Interim Provisions on the Administration of Periodicals originally enacted in 1990 and 1988, respectively.
Public security officers in Henan and Guangdong provinces detained two foreign journalists to prevent them from reporting on politically sensitive stories. The first incident occurred December 7 near Shanwei in Guangdong province, when a reporter from Hong Kong's TVB tried to enter Dongzhoukeng village to investigate reports of clashes between local residents and the government over property rights, according to a December 8 Radio Free Asia report. Chinese authorities detained the reporter, forced him to write a self-criticism, and would not allow him to enter the township.